Comments on: The Vepsa

The Vepsa

gregb1007 — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:57:31 -0800

The Vepsa are a distinct ethnic people who live in the Russian territory of Karelia, on the border with Finland. They are also scattered throughout the Leningrad and Vologda regions of Russia. Before many were assimiliated to Russian, the Vepsa spoke their own distinct variant of Finno-Ugric. [See more inside]

By: gregb1007

gregb1007 — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:03:30 -0800

Historically the Vepsa adhered to a pagan religion that worshipped animals such as bears, fish pike, and elks as divinities. Similar to followers of witchcraft, they also believed that the incanation of charms served to heal diseases. As they were christened, many of their pagan beliefs became integrated with Christianity.

The intended use of their cultural artifacts remain a mystery. Researchers still are not certain about the purpose of the stone labyrinths that were built by Vepsa in Karelia but also by other Finno-Ugric peoples. They do speculate though that the labyrinths were built for some kind of a religious ceremony. (For more in depth info on the Vepsa, visit the index of the site which contains a total of 45 articles about them.)

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:06:55 -0800

Where's the scooters?

By: spock

spock — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:15:48 -0800

</obvious>

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:18:05 -0800

Neat page. I had been under the assumption that Veps was a Karelian-like Finnish dialect. But the separation date sugested in the article (600-800 AD) suggests that there should be greater separation between Veps and Finnish than Finnish and Estonian.

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:19:22 -0800

I used to date a Vepsa, but her infatuation for smearing her body in two-stroke oil during wild animal sex became a bit much after awhile. Glad she liked Castrol though. . . .

By: wilful

wilful — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:25:58 -0800

It was the head of the house who first passed over me threshold of the new dwelling with an icon and hunk of bread, followed by his wife bearing a cock and a cat. The cock was set free immediately after she had passed over the threshold. If it crowed, the life in the new house would be happy; if the cock did not, it meant that the head of the family would soon die. A bit rough on the husband.

By: taursir

taursir — Tue, 03 May 2005 18:19:25 -0800

I guess I'm kind of happy to see something about Veps, or anything Balto-Finnic on metafilter. Balto-Finnic and Finno-Ugristics are one of my linguistic interests. Anyway, Veps is quite distinct from Karelian, Mayor, and is still spoken, albiet in small numbers. All the balto-finnic languages in the area, however, represent more of a dialect continuum, or heck, dialect bush, than anything. Veps is kind of somewhere inbetween Estonian and Finnish, but more precisely, somewhere inbetween Karelian and Estonian. To me, it sounds closer to Estonian than Finnish, but there are certainly many languages closer to Estonian than Veps, and many closer to Finnish than Karelian. Another language, representing one of Europe's smallest linguistic minorities is Livonian, and for anyone who is interested, there's a lovely site about it here.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 03 May 2005 18:30:36 -0800

Nice post. Obligatory linguistic nitpicking: as the Mayor implies, the normal English way of referring to these people is "Veps." If you're going to use their name for themselves, it's Vepsä (with an umlauted a) among the southern Veps, but I don't see any reason to do that, especially since the northern Veps call themselves Lyudinikad. (Not a criticism of the post, of course, which is just quoting the linked site.) Their language (brief description here) is, as the Mayor says, close to Karelian, which is mutually intelligible with the northern dialect of Veps. On preview: Veps is quite distinct from Karelian Distinct as in "a different language" or distinct as in "different branches of Finnic"? Because my sources say it's relatively close to Karelian.

By: taursir

taursir — Tue, 03 May 2005 18:56:31 -0800

Distinct as in "different language", hat. It's close to Karelian, but I speak some Karelian, and it looks quite different to me from Northern Karelian. Since you mention though that the northern veps call themselves Lyudinikad, makes me wonder if they're close to Lyydi Karelians, at all. It also looks like Veps has dropped vowel harmony, which Karelian retains, and which some dialects of Estonian have lost (lost in terms of loss from some sort of proto-balto-finnic).

By: TimothyMason

TimothyMason — Tue, 03 May 2005 23:40:42 -0800

Labyrinthos. New Age, informed, lots of photos - including : Church & Cathedral Labyrinths - English Turf Labyrinths - Native American Labyrinths - Roman Labyrinths - Prehistoric Labyrinths - Scandinavian Stone Labyrinths - Scandinavian Church Labyrinths They'll even make you a labyrinth if you want one.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Wed, 04 May 2005 01:17:31 -0800

*waves to taursir*

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Wed, 04 May 2005 17:09:55 -0800

Do the Vepsa ride moepds when they're feeling dyslexic?

By: specialk420

specialk420 — Wed, 04 May 2005 18:47:31 -0800

speaking of vespas wheeeeeeee!

By: hoskala

hoskala — Thu, 05 May 2005 05:42:44 -0800

A while ago I stumbled upon Vepsian Society's Web Site. Some of the content is mildly put, psychdelic. For example a 3-D Virtual tour of Vepsian landscapes and a vepsian soundscape. The art of web design just hasn't arrived to Veps yet...